It was not a good time of year to be abroad in the wild, for while the cold of the approaching winter drove some predators away those that remained were becoming ever hungrier and bolder. Yet Blarth, Nicos, Shade, Lynn, Arjuna, and Isac find themselves traveling overland and on foot, their need more than outweighing the relatively predictable dangers of the road. The weather was also a concern - their hasty departure had prevented the serious preparations required for a lengthy journey this time of year, but they had packed as best they could and planned to stop in the first likely town they came upon to acquire the rest.

They followed the south road out of Enderin, it being late enough that there were few to mark their passage. After a vigorous march well past sunset, they veered off eastward into a hilly land well blanketed with towering pines, which provided both shelter from the wind and any prying eyes. Camp had been set with little conversation, everyone moving with the practiced ease of a team performing a routine task. Despite their caution, it was decided that a small fire could be set, screened as they were by the pines.

The night is cold, but at least there's a fire. Juni is grateful for that. Her feet are sore and her muscles ache, and she doesn't think she's ever felt so completely worn out in her life. But she just doesn't feel ready to lie down and go to sleep yet. It would probably be uncomfortable anyway. I know I'm going to miss my room at The Copper Maiden and that big, soft feather bed tonight!

The silence is almost eerie, and makes the night seem even darker and colder. Juni shivers. Why is everyone so quiet? Shade and Isac had retired early, but what about the others? Where's the usual chatter, the playful banter? Juni can't believe that no-one has anything to say when there is so much, really, that needs to be talked about!

She sighs. A figure looms up on the other side of the fire, just outside the circle of light. Juni can't see who it is in the dark.

"Mind if I join you?" says a feminine voice. It belongs to Lynn.

"Yes! I mean.. No, of course I don't mind!" Juni jumps at the offer of company. "Please sit down. There's another log around here somewhere. Not the most comfortable seat, but at least you'll be off your feet. Mine are killing me! I've never walked so far at one time before. I- I haven't traveled much, in case you couldn't tell."

"I know what you mean" Lynn said with a wan smile, pulling the proffered log up and sinking down onto it with a sigh. "When ever I've travelled before it was always by boat or wagon, something I can sit down on. I don't think I've ever walked that far in one go in my life."

Stretching her feet out dangerously close to the fire, Lynn shut her eyes for a moment to enjoy the warmth. "Is it always this quiet when camping?" she adds in a low voice, leaning over to speak to the other young woman in a low voice. "I wasn't expecting a hearty inn at the end of the road, but this ...?"

"An inn, with supper hot off the stove and a song in the common room afterwards would have been welcome indeed," Juni agrees. "But I think we've seen the last of inns for a while."

The whisper of the wind in the pines is a lonely sound. Juni never thought she'd miss the night noises of the city, but she finds that she does. Was it really a good idea to run out here to the wilderness? It is too easy to imagine all the dangers of travel in the wastelands, especially with the darkness pressing round so close. Snakes... bears... bandits... And worse things, no doubt.

Don't forget goblin witches...

The psi-crystal hangs on a chain around her neck now, and she feels it warm against her breastbone.

Thanks for the reminder.

She shifts nervously on her log seat, and peers all around at the dark beyond the glow of the fire.

"I'm surprised you'd want to come with us," she says to Lynn. "I mean, why put yourself in danger if you don't have to?"

"Well I - that is I, I mean to say," Lynn stammered apparently caught off guard by the question. "It's more cold then dangerous out here," Lynn said. "There aren't enough people around for it to be really dangerous you know?

"What about you?" the young woman asked, turning the topic around. "How did you end up with this lot? I mean no offence but you don't really seem to fit in with the others, they're all rather ... distinctive in their own way. And you, well seem normal."

Hearing Lynn downplay the danger of their situation makes Juni feel a bit foolish, like a child being teased for sleeping with the light on. But she almost laughs when Lynn calls her "normal".

"I seem normal, do I? I'm glad to hear it. I do try." Her fingers play absently with the pale blue gem at her throat. "I've never really felt normal though. Too many odd things going on in my head. Visions. Or feelings about what's going to happen next. When I was growing up, the other children didn't want to play with me - I always won at Hide and Seek!" She does laugh at that. The memory used to sting but somehow it doesn't bother her so much any more.

"But to answer your question, just pretending to be normal wasn't good enough after a while. Some people figured that I was too much like my father - he really was not normal at all - and I had to leave town. I met Shade by accident, and she and her friends helped me get away.

"I don't quite feel that I've found my place with them yet," she adds, almost to herself. Then she looks at Lynn with a smile. "But you won't have any trouble with that. You're Nicos'... " She stops suddenly as she realizes what she is about to say.

Lover?? Are you sure that she's Nicos' lover?

"Uh... You're Nicos'... uh, bard.. friend," she finally finishes lamely. It's dark, so Lynn can't see the color come into her cheeks. But Juni feels them burn like fire. She looks quickly away, pretending a sudden interest in the state of the camp fire. "Oh, is the fire dying down? I think it needs more wood..."

She stumbles blindly away from the fire and away from Lynn, mumbling a hasty, "Think I'll turn in now," over her shoulder as she goes. Her foot is caught on a protruding root and her ankle twists. She almost tumbles head over heels before regaining her footing.

"Damn!" she mutters as she tries to reorient herself. "I can't see a thing!"

"Give your eyes a minute to adjust to the darkness," a voice says from nearby.

"Isac?" she asks the dark form that she can just barely make out among the deep shadows under the trees. "I thought you were sleeping." Something glitters in the firelight, the dark shape is moving. She realizes that Isac is indeed sitting up in his bedroll, but he is diligently restrapping his chainmail.

Chainmail?

Now that she thinks about it, the priest had seemed unusually organized and disciplined during the forced march and while setting up camp. He had never seemed tired, nor had he seemed to lose his focus.

"That.. that can't be comfortable," she says, indicating with a nod the man's heavy armor. "How will you sleep?"

"Oh, I'm sure it will be fine." Juni steps gingerly forward a step. "Ow. I think. No, no, it's not bad really, just a little sore. Stupid shoes." She scowls down at her feet and the high button shoes that were the height of fashion back in Tradeholm. Here in the wilderness, they are the height of impracticality, however.

"I really wasn't ready to leave Enderin in such a hurry," she laughs. "If only there'd been time to get some things first. I guess I can't blame you for that though, can I?"

"Here," Isac says as he clears a spot for her to sit, "let me take a look at that."

Juni thinks of protesting, but then imagines how it will be if she wakes up tomorrow with a swollen ankle, unable to walk. She ought to go ahead and let the priest look at it now, before it becomes a problem.

"All right," she says, and sits down in the space he cleared for her.

Carefully removing her shoe and sock Isac expertly runs his fingers across the tendons and muscles, noting each wince.

"Its not too bad," he says still cradling her foot. "Still..." he closes his eyes and his hand glows for just a second. A warmth penetrates Juni's ankle, washing away the pain.

"Oh."

So that's what magical healing feels like, she thinks.

"See...good as new" he says giving her ankle a final rub before returning her sock and shoe.

Juni flexes her foot, feeling the night air cold on her toes. Isac is right - the ankle is as good as new.

"Thank you! You are most kind." She smiles as she buttons the shoe. "But you shouldn't have wasted your gift on me. What if something happens to Shade again in the night?"

"Don't worry," he says with a smile. "It was only a cantrip - minor spells you learn as an initiate. Besides we've more days of long walks ahead of us."

"Oh, great. More walking," Juni says, less than enthusiastically. "I guess I'd better get some sleep then." Thinking about Shade again, and the curse, and the Sisters of the Jade Eye... Juni isn't sure how easy it will be to rest peacefully.

I should've asked him to tell me more about what is happening, she thinks. But instead, she stands up and tells him, "Good night."

"Good night," he says and then watches her grope her way back to her tent. She was right, he shouldn't have showed off. All his training told him to save every bit of divine gift for true emergencies. With a sigh he goes back to repacking his kit.

Not that it mattered.

He had thrown all of his most powerful healing spells into Shade's hand with almost no effect. It wouldn't be long until... he pushes the thought from his mind. Focus on what you can do, leave the rest to Pelor.

The night is cold and quiet, the stars clear and bright above, and one by one the watches pass uneventfully. Shade's watch is as uneventful as the others have been. She has little trouble making out the constellations she knows so well from traveling on nights such as these - the hunter, the dragon, the fisherman. Her cold gaze swivels around the quiet campsite, ears pricked for any noise out of place among her sleeping companions. Her eyes easily discern the details around her, despite the fact that the moon has not yet risen. She doesn't dwell on the implications. When her gaze turns to Isac she finds him staring back at her, all gaunt cheekbones and pale-bright eyes. She suppresses a jolt at the contact; he was next on watch but she wasn't due to wake him for some time yet. Given the events so far this night it was unsurprising that he should find sleep difficult in coming.

Quietly the priest rises and slowly makes his way to the edge of the campfire. Tiredly he sits down across from her, dropping his mace onto the ground with a thud. The dying embers fo the fire reflected redly off of its silvered flanges. It struck Shade as a strange weapon for the thin priest to be carrying, but its worn handle spoke of heavy use.

Isac sits there quietly as the stars turn overhead, occassionally poking at the coals with the blackened tip of a stick.

"How are you feeling?" he says at length.

She is still as he approaches the fire, her body seeming part of her surroundings. Only her eyes were alive - hungry, predatory. But his manner and words disarm her reflexive aggression and she exhales, long and slow, relaxing her body and her mind, seeing him as who he is: a man, trying to help her. It was a foreign concept, against her policy of self-preservation and solitude, but her months with companions had perhaps softened her to the idea. And as before, there was something in him that made her simply believe that he was genuine.

She shrugs at the question, "I'm okay. Not entirely myself, but then it's been a while since I've really felt like myself."

"I imagine...Any idea how we can uncover what it is that you've forgotten?" his eyes stay fixed on the ruddy embers.

The red light glitters on her grey eyes but the night stays pressed closely about her. She'd been considering that same question for some time now. It seemed likely that Ricard would have known something but he wasn't in any condition to talk now. Skathros, maybe, but he'd be happy to watch her rot. What did that leave?

"I don't know. My old mentor is dead along with whatever he knew. I ran into one of his lieutenants recently, who may have been involved in the whole thing; he might have some information but he'd like to see me die slowly so I don't think we'll get anything out of him. Driftport is probably the only shot. That's where I was working when it happened, I think. The guild will still be there, and like as not they'll be using the same mage."

"I imagine a guild mage will not be particularly forthcoming with his trade secrets..." Isac smiles wryly. "Still its a place to start at least."

"That it is."

She leans back silently and for a while neither of them speak, the only sound the slither of wind through the branches. There is not much hope, at least not in Shade's mind. Whatever was eating through her had been working at it for some time. Even if they could get the information they needed, how long would she be able to fend off the curse? She swallows down the fear, tries to be strong.

"Of all the ways I thought it would end, it was never like this."

"Its not over yet. Which reminds me, I need to pick up a couple of things when we hit the next town. Some herbs and the like for a poultice that should help slow the curse."

Shade nods slowly at him, eyes empty. Maybe it would help and maybe not.

"Why do you want to help at all? You did your job - no need to risk your neck for a thief you don't even know. Why soil your name with my crime?"

"Its a character flaw," he says with a shrug. "But its late, and you need to try to get some sleep."

The gray eyes narrow. There was a reason - there was always a reason. Her voice is flat in response.

"What do you want from me?"

The question takes him by surprise. "I want you to live," he says at length.

"That makes two of us. You have everything to lose - I don't see any gain for you, but there must be something. So what is it?"

"I could tell you, but you wouldn't believe me," he says as he fishes out a hunk of stale bread and takes a bite.

Shade presses her lips together, wondering if he was right or not. You believed that everyone was out for themselves if you didn't want to be swindled out of everything you owned, up to and including your life. If words didn't match actions or actions didn't match interests, then you could be pretty sure you were being lied to. Of course, she had found out there were other kinds of people - the kind that would help you because you were a friend, or because you were in need. Same behavior, different motivation. She looks at Isac with his open eyes and gaunt face, at the brutal mace he carried at his side - incongruous but somehow fitting as well. She shrugs, watching his jaw muscles bunch and relax as he chews.

"I don't know what I would believe."

"Its the right thing to do." There is a simple finality to the statement, as if he were pointing out something as fundamentally obvious as the sky being blue.

Shade considers that for a while, with only the night to judge the wrongful deeds in her wake. He would have fit well with Cadrius and Maeko. The fact that neither are currently traveling with the group is not lost on her. Cadrius couldn't abide who she was and Maeko . . . well, Maeko hadn't been privy to her secrets.

"You might not feel that way if you really knew me."

"Troubled past?"

"You could say that."

"Can you change it?"

"No more than I can change who I am."

There is a challenge in her voice, one she knows full well that Isac is ill prepared to accept. The worse he thought she was the better - nobody would get disappointed that way. If he wanted to walk away, now was the time, before she let herself have any hope.

"You change every instant you draw breath, whether you want to or not. Every day you choose the person that you are anew."

"And still when the day is ended we have no choice. We do what we must to survive."

"There's always a choice, just as there's always a tomorrow."

"Not if you're dead and I don't want to die. So I don't have a choice. You do. But you need to make it soon or you'll be in the same boat as me."

Hooded, face obscured by the ever present veil and deep shadow, her grey eyes glimmer in the dark, earnest and steady. It was an admission of sorts, to herself more than anyone else, that she still had the will to survive. Thoughts of her blackened, cracking flesh still haunted her but she had mastered her feelings, set her mind to the impossible task that lay ahead. Live, or die trying.

Isac smiles. Her conviction to live would end up doing more than healing craft that he knew. "Let me take another look at your hand before you take your rest."

"All I'm saying is that it seems excessive is all," Nicos said quietly to Lynn as the group trudged along the cold, winter forest path. "The attire, the name, the general attitude."

"You don't need to preach," Lynn replied, just as quietly. "I already said I agree with you."

"But you're not going to say anything?"

"Do I look stupid?"

"Stupid isn't the first word I'd use to describe how you look," Nicos said flashing a smile at his younger companion.

"Oh?" Lynn said with an arched eyebrow. "Then what ... the hell is that?"

Turning to look in the direction the young bard was pointing, Nicos watched as what could only be described as a half-dozen man-sized ants walked over the crest of a nearby hill, paused a moment then came charging towards them.

"I don't know but I don't think they're here to make friends," he said hand dropping to sword hilt. "Guys, we have incoming!"

The gorget and pauldrons, the vambraces and gauntlets, the cuirass and greaves—each piece of armor is set with care, leaning against a broad maple. Its few dead leaves shiver in the chill breeze. A fire burns, casting little light and less heat. The rest of the village is still. None of its residents stir. Only the guest is awake at this hour.

Daybreak is still some time off, but already the gray predawn light casts an eerie glow across the thatched roofs. It feels as if a dream. Cadrius wishes it was. But what faint magic might flit before the sun rises is not enough to distract him from his grim business.

He carries each from their homes and barns, bearing their lifeless bodies in his arms or on his shoulders. They deserve better. They deserve procession and honor. They deserve a priest to speak benedictions and speed their souls onward, homeward, to the heavens. Most of all, they deserve to have those that love them best to mourn their passing. But they have none of that. All they have is a fallen paladin to bear witness that yes, these people lived and breathed here. All they have is Cadrius to give them a resting place.

Thirty bodies lie here within what may have passed for a town hall. It is scant bigger than any other building, but its bones are of oak and will suffice. It seems like such a small number, barely over a score, but to see them here, laid side-by-side—husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, neighbors—it is a massive host of the dead. He pauses, looking at them. They are as nameless as the dead on a battlefield. It shouldn’t bother him, but it does. How can he give them peace if he cannot name them?

But it is not the first time that he has presided over unknown souls. As a knight of the Archpaladin, it was his duty to shepherd the fallen from this mortal coil toward the gates of the Invincible. His mouth twists into a sardonic grin. This shepherd would never see the rolling green pasture that the flock had journeyed to.

His voice is soft. The hallowed words ring hollow in his ears, but they suffice. His shoulders and arms ache. These people are laid here, together as a village, along with every chair and table he could carry in.

Blarth had mostly been quiet since leaving Tradeholm and rejoining the others on the road. It had been the second time in recent weeks that the group had been forced to flee a city. It was in danger of becoming a habit (father had always defined a habit as anything you did the same way at least three times). Father had always warned against habits as things that a prepared enemy could take advantage of. As a result, every potential new habit must be considered carefully before being undertaken.

And so, Blarth was thinking about habits and trying to decide if his recent experiences qualified. On one hand the events which had led to the group fleeing each city were vastly different. On the other hand, the end result was the same. Did the reason matter or not? And if it didn't, was this a habit that Blarth could actually avoid acquiring?

"...incoming!"

Broken out of his thoughts by Nicos' warning. Blarth immediately scans the surrounding for the threat. At first, he sees nothing out of the ordinary. The road, trees, some grass, mud, big bugs, a couple of squirels fighting over a nut, a chipmuck stealing said nut, a few clouds in the sky, maybe a bird or two...

Wait, big bugs?

Looking back, Blarth studies the oversized ants and readily agrees with Nicos' conclusion that they aren't friendly. Grabbing his club, Blarth steps away from the others to give himself some room to fight. Immediately two of the oncoming ants adjust their charge to follow Blarth's movement, but the others keep right on coming.

"I've got these two," Blarth declares. Peering into the future as he'd been taught, Blarth anticipates the arrival of the first ant a split second before the other and meets said arrival with a powerful swing of his club, cracking it's carapace, but not really slowing it as the ant's stinger pricks at Blarth's leg. Stepping lightly, Blrath manages to avoid the first stinger, only to find the second in his other calf and he grunts in pain as the wound burns with the creature's venom.

__________________
Physics is like sex. Sometimes it yields practical results, but that's not why we do it.
-Richard Feynman

"Guys, we have incoming!" Nicos's shout is quickly punctuated by the sound of Blarth's heavy club cracking chitin. Two of the ant-men swarmed over the big orc, and another brace were pressing Nicos and his friend. That left the last pair for him, Juni and Shade. At least we have numbers... Isac thinks as he pulls his holy symbol from under his jacket. But that brief glimmer of hope withers as one of the bugs sinks a stinger into Blarth's calf. Green venomous ichor mixes with the half-orcs blood turning it a muddy brown.

Not good...

The chaos of battle washes over the thin priest as he readies his mace. Dark words of power spring to his lips as training he thought long forgotten takes control. A heart beat later he can feel the cold tendrils of necromatic energy blackening his eyes and worming their way into his brain. The colors of the world fade, bleaching under the cursed sight of the undead. Blarth's clothes and body become gossamer traceries wrapped around the bright motes of his life-force. Still strong.... The last two ant-men surge past the half-orc and his opponents. Holding his mace defensively Isac steps forward to draw their attention long enough for Shade to move into position. The two converge, their abdomens flexing forward to drive their venomous stingers home. The first hits the Pelorian in the thigh and eventhough the force sends the thin man staggering, it fails to penetrate his maille. Deprived of a target the second ant-man closes, its mandibles eagerly clicking.

Nicos scooped a handful of dirt into his grasp as Lynn drew her dagger from its hiding place and stepped back. Absently the bard noted that one day he had to find out where exactly she was hiding it. Pulling the fistful of dirt to his mouth Nicos began whispering, hot breath carrying words to caress the particles of soil clutched between his fingers.

The insect creatures broke off and one moved directly towards the bardic duo and Nicos increased the tempo of his whisper increased, words lost to the wind the moment they were uttered, heard only by the fragments of dust held in the darkness of his hands, dust that listened to words of coax and encouragement until they began to dance.

The insect drew closer and Nicos' whispering reached a frantic rate until just as the creature was upon him. Throwing the dirt in a sparkling golden spray at the last moment, the bard dove away a touch too slow. A pair of claws impacted with his armour, throwing off his balance and turning a graceful roll into a graceless sprawl.

Laying on the dirt of the forest floor a few feet away, Nicos looked up at the insect. Its head and torso were covered with a golden substance that clung to its carapace and shimmered as it moved. The creature's charge had come to a close and it now thrashed randomly at the air around it, clearly unable to see.

Nicos smiled as he pulled himself to his feet, not bad for a few bruises.

Shade slides off to the side, predictably taking advantage of Isac's play. She falters slightly as his incantation washes over her; the black and white vision she had grown used suddenly rippled, altering slightly. For a moment, the world seemed a place of seething grey, friend and foe alike shapes in massed thunderclouds. Almost immediately, the shapes contracted once more into something akin to their normal forms - grey still but lit from within now, the world darkening rapidly outside the light of the living.

Shaking off the disorientation, she drives her sword toward the creature directly between herself and Isac, seeking to pierce the chitin protecting it's thin neck. Just as she begins her lunge, she hears the sharp, rapid drumming of insectile footfalls behind her. She twists defensively without even looking as the unseen bug lunges for her unprotected back. She feels the stabbing pain of the creature's stinger in the back of her thigh as she dodges beneath the slavering mandibles. Adding insult to injury, the strength is robbed from her thrust and her blade glances ineffectually off the armor of her enemy.

Juni stares. Her mouth drops open. She stumbles back a few steps, instinctively putting the mailed priest between herself and the attackers.

And just in time. The giant ant-men are swarming all over the place, or so it seems. Two come rushing up, but they ignore her and focus on Isac instead. It is incredible - they are insects but they are nearly as tall as the man they are attacking! And they are surprisingly quick and nimble.

Juni takes another couple of quick steps back, and glances around. Confusion everywhere. How many monsters are there? Is anyone hurt? Those stingers are wicked!

It is seeing how the ant-men stab so viciously with their stingers that finally prods Juni into action. She concentrates - clasping her psi-crystal tightly in her hand helps with that - and then throws up a mind-shield around herself. It glitters blue in the cold morning light.

Shrugging off the burn of his calf injury, steps out from between the two mants and takes another whack at the one he injured earlier. This time, however, the mant seems better prepared for the blow and moves its head so that the club bounces harmlessly off it's chitenous exterior. Still, the mant is clearly enraged by the earlier blow that it took as it strikes at Blarth with stinger, pincers, and claws. Ducking and dodging the rapid succession of blows, Blarth can do nothing to prevent the second mant from circling around behind him again, but at least he is able to avoid it's stinger this time.

__________________
Physics is like sex. Sometimes it yields practical results, but that's not why we do it.
-Richard Feynman

The formian turns at Shade's attack, allowing Isac to swing on it exposed back. Gripping his mace in both hands he throws all of his weight behind the blow only to have it bounce off the creature's thick carapace. The thin priest staggers backwards as the two formians descend on him. Hardend chitin lashes across his head and chest sending blood and rent links of maille into the air.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised," Nicos quipped to the blind insect before him. "At how easy it is to crush a-"
"-Behind you!"

Forewarned by the shout from Lynn, the former monk dropped into a crouch, twisting around to see what was behind him. In all the excitement of looking cool and uttering witticisms he had failed to keep track of the rest ant creatures and one had rushed up on him from behind. If it wasn't for the warning from his comely cohort the creature would have bitten his head clear off.

Rising to a knee, Nicos swept his sword out, flicking the steel in a horizontal sweep that met chitinous claws, forcing the insect to momentarily pull back.

"I'll take care of the blind one," Lynn offered, eyeing the still thrashing creature with the golden face paint. "You just focus on that one."
"Sure," Nicos muttered under his breath. "I'll do all of the work, don't mind me."

In a straight fight, Shade knows the creatures have the upper hand. They simply had more weaponry. In hopes of mitigating the advantage she drops back in an arcing retreat, drawing one of them off of Isac. Her plan succeeds but not without a price - the mant moves like lightning and as she dodges to avoid it's mandibles, the creature tucks it's abdomen up and pricks her side with its stinger. Shade staggers back painfully, sweat starting out on her face despite the cold.

Shade is stung right in front of her eyes, and Juni realizes suddenly that the giant ant-men will kill one of more of her friends if something isn't done soon.

I can't fight one of those things! she thinks desperately, even as she fumbles for the sword at her side.

Remember Vywodor! she hears the psi-crystal's voice in her head say.

Of course! She'd used a powerful mind thrust to catch her kidnapper off guard, and then run him through with his own sword. Something like that could work here. At least it might slow the creature down enough to let Shade finish it off.

Juni hesitates. The thought of reaching out with her mind to attack one of these man-ants frightens her. But she has to do something.

She concentrates again, gathering all the mental energy she can command. She holds that power within herself, letting it build and solidify; then lets a tiny finger of it trace a path away from her, feeling for the giant insect's mind. She finds it, but it is so strange, so alien, so insectile, that she almost doesn't recognize it for what it is. The creature seems to falter at just that moment, and she lets go of the pent-up energy. It streaks like an arrow to its target.

Juni sighs with the release of the power, knowing that she had held back just a little. She hadn't meant to. It had just felt like too much power to wield, even against an enemy that meant to kill her and her friends. She had not been able to block out the memory of her father and the way that he had used the mind thrust to punish and to dominate. Nor could she forget that first death that she herself had caused, and the shock in Vywodor's eyes as he realized her true power.

The monster staggers back from Shade, surprised. It likely believed that she had inflicted the pain that it had felt. Juni hopes that Shade isn't made to pay for that.